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Get PDFTwo Theses: Kenelm Digby’s Oeconomy of Nature and the Immortal Soul
Get PDF“Two Theses: Kenelm Digby’s Oeconomy of Nature and the Immortal Soul” investigates the role of two themes in the life’s works of Kenelm Digby (1603-1665): the idea of nature as working in a systematized way to place things to their best use; and, the idea that the human soul is immaterial, hence immune to the workings of nature, and rather immortal. This thesis argues that these two themes ought to be considered as foundational to Digby’s writings throughout his life and that their co-existence with his simultaneously scientific and experimental efforts to understand nature are mutually intertwined. Furthermore, “Two Theses: Kenelm Digby’s Oeconomy of Nature and the Immortal Soul” reveals Digby’s uniquely multifaceted project which ultimately uses mechanical philosophy to posit ideas of an interconnected nature, what we now recognize as ecological recycling, and how personal belief shapes the creation of knowledge
Virtual Schools & Reimagined Homes: Interweaving Indigenous Education Sovereignty within Colonial Learning Landscapes
Get PDFThis research-creation thesis examines the concept of learning space as a means of addressing liminality in both “learning" and "spatiality,” contrasting with the idea of a systematic, static, built enclosure. Recent research on educational spaces primarily reflects Western academic discourse, overlooking the fact that modern schooling models and their spatial concepts represent, for Indigenous peoples and other communities, a continuation of colonial legacies. By examining Indigenous (Amazigh) perspectives on space and learning, and using weaving as a pedagogical tool, the creative component accompanying the thesis provides an experimental foundation for a decolonial and dematerialized pedagogical space. It investigates the Amazigh concept of Asegmi (Indigenous education) and the transmission of Amazigh knowledge through weaving across homes and virtual spaces as a symbol of Indigenous educational sovereignty and resistance. It also presents Amazigh weaving as a spatial element that proposes an unstable logic that portrays the ambiguous relation between an individual's identity/knowledge and domestic/educational spaces in their solid form. This thesis unfolds as a series of theoretical explorations and experimentations which emphasize Indigenous ways of learning, non-architectural perspectives on learning spaces, and the introduction of a subverted virtual space that fosters the reimagining of Indigenous knowledge systems and practices
The Politics of Devotion: Material Culture and Lived Religion in a Bengali Guru-Shrine
No full textThis dissertation examines the intersections of material culture, lived religion, and nationalism at Belūr Maṭh, a guru-devotional site in Bengal and the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, a transnational religious institution. Established in 1898 by Swami Vivekananda, Belūr Maṭh is popularly viewed as a cultural-religious symbol of Bengal and a prominent guru-devotional shrine visited by both devotees and tourists. The study examines the materiality of the site – the iconographic images of the saints, sacred food, and the built materiality – paying attention to how these items are presented by the monks of the institution and how the devotees encounter them. In analysing the iconographic representations of the saints, I show how discourses of gender and nationalism are embedded within the images, influenced by the ideological constructs of the anti-colonial movement centered in Bengal. Moving to the post-colonial contemporary period, I highlight two major changes in the materiality of the maṭh: alterations to the sacred food menu distributed to the public and a reconfiguration of the built materiality of the maṭh, with new facilities such as toilet blocks, drinking-water taps, amenities accompanied by signage acknowledging the patrons – the central government of India. In examining the material practices of the maṭh, this research elucidates the ways in which nationalist rhetoric are disseminated within religious communities, shaping collective identities. The study also sheds light on the everyday lay devotees and visitors who come to the temple complex, and through fieldwork methods of participant observation and interviews, illustrate their encounters with the materiality of the site. I demonstrate how encounters with the saints’ iconography, relics, and sacred food believed to be imbued with their divine power, facilitate bonds with the saints, and in the process, shape religious identity. By analysing the devotees’ responses through the lens of nationalism, I demonstrate how “banal nationalism” is constructed and shaped through everyday religiosity, surreptitiously seeping into the everyday public sphere. Overall, the study investigates the maṭh as a lived religious site, where religious specialists, lay devotees, (deified) saints, and political government figures form networks of relationships shaped by various factors
Queer occult: How Queer People in Montréal “Reclaim” Practices of Astrology, Tarot, and Magic to Divest from Legacies of Settler Colonialism, Whiteness, and Imperial Modernity
Get PDFOver the past few years there has been an explosion in popularity of so-called ‘occult’ practices like astrology and tarot, particularly among left-leaning people who tend to politicize their investments as forms of counterhegemony. Queer practitioners have claimed kinship with the occult through a perceived shared abjection, deeming it an inherently queer resource for self- and community empowerment, and naming anti-racism and decolonization key aims of their work. At the same time, these forms of occultism draw suspicion, not least among practitioners themselves, who are critical of the ways these knowledge traditions have been complicit in ‘spiritual genocide’.
In ethnographic fieldwork among queer occultists in Montreal, I explore how practitioners imagine themselves to be divesting from legacies of violence, opting instead for apparently queer genealogies of knowledge that are known in terms of the ways they have been repressed. Drawing from work across history of science, critical race theory, queer studies, and affect theory, I theorize the occult as an historiographic mode, always already about epistemic crisis and the struggle between sanctioned methods of inquiry. I theorize the occult’s appeal among queer people as a process of affective expansion, wherein practitioners attune to heretofore repressed lifeways, knowledges and worlds that machineries of empire have rendered invisible. What's more, I depart from debates over cultural appropriation to develop a theory of the occult as a biopolitical affect regime, wherein the development of sensitivity is linked to social healing and progress. I locate the contemporary phenomenon of queer occultism within a broader conversation on inheritance, historical repair, and divestment from empire, wherein participants confront the possibility of connecting to the "elsewhere" of imperial modernity. How does the occult represent an attempt to build a capacity for that connection, and how do participants reflect on this capacity as key to healing from white supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism
Variable Intensity Patches With Swirls (VIPs): Novel Data Augmentation for Retinal Vessel Segmentation
Get PDFA significant problem in retinal vessel segmentation (RVS) research is overfitting mainly due to the lack of large datasets. Data augmentation can alleviate this problem. Current augmentation techniques for RVS do not address the main challenges of localized variable intensities and microvessels in retinal images. This thesis proposes a data augmentation technique (termed variable-intensity patches with swirls, VIPs) to create augmented retinal images by randomly adding variable-size and variable-intensity square patches with swirl structures to a training image, online during training. We add patches and swirls without overlapping the retinal vessels. Our variable patches simulate images with illumination changes, and swirls add microvessel-like structures. To evaluate our augmentation technique, we study recent RVS models and examine the impact of their components, including augmentation, augmentation mode, and preprocessing. We then propose both data preprocessing (gamma correction and contrast enhancement) and VIPs augmentation to address challenges in RVS. Our experiments with in- and cross-datasets show that our combined augmentation and preprocessing technique significantly improves the performance of RVS baseline models (e.g., LWNet by 6.68% and SegRNet by 5.29% in AUC measure). Also, our technique is more stable than all related works across RVS models. Our approach helps to reduce the training-validation losses of RVS models and the gap between training and validation losses. We performed ablation studies on our technique: comparing patches versus swirls, looking at the impact of preprocessing, and analyzing its hyperparameters
How Do Imposed Service Conditions Shape Customer-Server Interactions and Influence Tipping Dynamics in the Canadian Food Service Industry
No full textTipping remains a crucial aspect of the service industry globally, serving as a major source of income for service workers and reinforcing social norms of rewarding good service. The intricate practice of tipping within the service industry is shaped by a confluence of economic, social, and psychological factors, deeply influencing both server and customer behaviours. Research on tipping dynamics shows that customers often face social pressures to tip regardless of service quality, while servers experience economic instability due to the variability of tips. My thesis explores tipping dynamics in the Canadian food service industry, through 12 semi-structured interviews and YouTube content analysis. By analysing the customer-server interaction and the socio-economic pressures surrounding tipping, my research uncovers how imposed service conditions affect the servers and customers individually, with a significant impact on their relationship. This research contributes to the literature by deepening the theoretical understanding of the impact of tipping on social, economic, and psychological dynamics within the Canadian service industry. For practitioners my research offers actionable insights for crafting equitable service policies that not only enhance customer satisfaction but also foster a more harmonious and rewarding environment for servers
Risk-Averse Policy Gradient for Tail Risk Optimization Using Extreme Value Theory
Get PDFIn this work, we develop a risk-averse Policy Gradient algorithm in a tail risk optimization problem. Our objective is to find the optimal policy that minimizes tail risk, given a risk measure such as Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR). We employed Extreme Value Theory, along with the automated threshold method to manage risks associated with extreme events. This paper is the first to integrate EVT within risk-averse policy gradient RL algorithms for sequential decision making. To evaluate our approach, we initially test it on simulated data generated from heavytailed distributions, including the Generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) and the Burr distribution. Subsequently, we applied our method to address a hedging problem, aiming to mitigate exceedingly high risks and finding optimal gamma hedging strategies within a highly volatile market where options are notably expensive. This involves identifying the optimal proportion of gamma to hedge, while minimizing costs and risk associated with gamma hedging errors. Also, we utilize the finite difference method to approximate the gradient of the estimated CVaR. The experimental results indicate convergence in the policy, CVaR estimation, and the gradient approximation of estimated CVaR. Moreover, integrating Extreme Value Theory into risk-averse policy gradient methods significantly improves performance, especially in markets characterized by an underlying asset following a Normal Inverse Gaussian distribution (NIG), known for its pure-jump semi-heavy tail distribution
Awwvertising strategy: exploring how cuteness impacts influencer marketing
Get PDFInfluencer marketing has become a valuable marketing communications channel for brands to
generate positive connections with consumers. Building on the success of their human
counterparts, a unique niche of pet influencers has emerged and provided brands with new social
media marketing opportunities. My thesis investigated whether, how, and why pet influencers
impact consumers’ responses to sponsored social media posts featuring them. Across one pre-test
and three studies, I investigated the effects of the perceived level of cuteness of a social media
influencer (i.e., pet influencer vs. human influencer) on consumers’ attitudes, behavioral
intentions, and purchase likelihood. Study 1 found no main effects of influencer type on
consumers’ responses, but revealed serial mediations through mood and perceived persuasion
intent, which closely and conceptually replicated in Studies 2a and 2b respectively. My thesis
provides theoretical contributions, avenues for future research, and managerial implications
related to the use of pet influencers in marketing communications
A Multimethod Investigation of Beliefs about Losing Control in Anxiety-Related Disorders
Get PDFMaladaptive beliefs are proposed to be critical in the development and maintenance of anxiety-related disorders. One commonly reported maladaptive belief domain concerns negative beliefs people hold about losing control. These concerns about the likelihood and consequences of losing control over one’s behaviour, thoughts, emotions and/or physical reactions appear to be prevalent in clinical and non-clinical samples. This program of research aimed to better assess, define and delineate the nature of these beliefs using a multi-method approach. In Study 1, undergraduate psychology students (N = 126) were given false feedback that they were either at high or low risk of losing control, and then completed a social interaction task with an actor. The belief that one was at high risk of losing control led to greater anticipatory anxiety leading up to the social interaction task, significant doubt about one’s social performance and significantly more negative post-event processing. In Study 2, an unselected sample of undergraduate participants (N = 21), half of whom met criteria for one or more anxiety-related disorders, was interviewed about their beliefs about losing control. Losses were defined as negative, multifaceted cognitive-behavioural phenomena which included thoughts, behaviours and emotions. Common consequences were perceived harm to oneself or others, powerlessness, and unpleasant emotions during (e.g., sadness, frustration, anxiety) and following (e.g., regret, shame, humiliation) a reported loss of control. In Study 3, undergraduate students (N = 440) completed an expanded set of items designed to better measure maladaptive beliefs about losing control, leading to the assessment of the Beliefs About Losing Control Inventory, Second Edition (BALCI-II). An exploratory factor analysis indicated the BALCI-II captured several domains of feared consequences of losing control: 1) overwhelming emotions 2) dangerous behaviour and 3) madness and 4) inflated beliefs about probability/severity of those losses. The BALCI-II was found to be psychometrically sound and predictive of symptoms of OCD and SAD, above and beyond existing disorder-specific maladaptive beliefs. Implications for cognitive theory and therapy are discussed